Saturday, August 16, 2014

Angry Video Game Nerd: The Movie - He's Gonna Take You Back To The Past...

I should preface this review by
admitting that I’ve been a fan of an internet critic named The Angry Video Game
Nerd (AVGN) for a few years. I haven’t been there from the start, but the
character’s review style has been enough to make me laugh and remind me that no
matter how much nostalgia you have for an older era of video games, not all of
them were good. I haven’t enjoyed every episode, but I followed him nonetheless
and will continue to do so indefinitely. In that time though, I’ve also come to
know James Rolfe, the creator of and actor for the AVGN, through the other
videos on his Cinemassacre website. As a person, he’s much more of a film buff
than a gaming buff, which shows in the ever-evolving cinematography of his main
series. One of his other staple series, an annual series called Monster
Madness, shows off his knowledge of horror movies and filmmaking in general,
which extends in his Board James series, where he reviews board games, as well
as a host of other videos. His passion for filmmaking is very clear, as he has
also expressed a wish to be able to someday make movies for a living.

With this passion of his, it’s really no
wonder that he would start making a movie, but the really intriguing thing is
that he chose his AVGN character as the subject matter. Starting from the
initial announcement, he’s also posted several videos and article updates so
that fans would know how far he was in the process, of which I have seen all of
them. Early in the production cycle, he ended up having to create a fundraiser,
with a goal of $75,000 for the film’s budget so that it could at least be
partially funded by the fans. However, by the time the fundraiser ended, fans
ended up pitching in a total of over $325,000, meaning that he could not only
create his vision, but it would also be entirely fan-funded.

After a few years of production and a
year of post production, the movie was finally finished and premiered at the
Grauman’s Egyptian Theater, chosen because that’s where the first Hollywood
premiere, Robin Hood, took place. Unfortunately, despite my relative proximity
to Hollywood, I was unable to attend the premiere due to circumstances outside
my control. At first I thought I would never get to see the movie theatrically,
but then a ray of hope shined when Cinemassacre updated the screenings page to
indicate that the movie would be playing at the Landmark Regent in Los Angeles.
Not exactly the Egyptian, and no personal appearances, but I jumped on the
chance and, after weeks of waiting, finally saw the movie the other day. Would
I say the wait was worth it? Yes.

I got better at using my Smartphone camera.

Outside of his life as a video game
reviewer, The Angry Video Game Nerd (James Rolfe) works behind the counter at
the games retailer GameCops (an obvious nod to GameStop) with Cooper Folly
(Jeremy Suarez), a friend who wants to assist him in making his videos. AVGN is
being forced to sell games that he doesn’t want to because of their poor
quality, but every time he tries to warn customers about this, they do the
opposite of what he tells them; he even spits on a copy of a shooting game (the
name of which is a nod to Call of Duty) and this action further entices the
consumer to buy it. At the same time, a company called Cockburn Inc. is
marketing a game named Ee Tee Two, a sequel to the infamous Ee Tee game which
promises to be even worse. This gets Cooper to insist that AVGN review Ee Tee,
a game he had been trying to avoid covering for years, but also ends up
exciting the crowd in the store at the possibility. Shocked, AVGN leaves the
store, only for Cooper to follow him and apologize. Later, as the two of them
drive to a bar, they discuss the legitimacy of an urban legend which states
that Ee Tee was so bad that Atari ended up burying millions of cartridges in a
landfill in Alamogordo, New Mexico. AVGN doesn’t believe the story, but Cooper
does and says that they’ll meet someone at the bar he’s been communicating with
for a while that can confirm it. When they get to the bar, the contact turns
out to be Mandy (Sarah Glendening), a woman sent by Cockburn Inc. to try and
encourage AVGN to review their new game, Ee Tee Two. After a lengthy argument,
AVGN agrees to review it on the condition that they discover the legend of the
Atari landfill to be true. This condition is acceptable and, the next day, the
three of them are on their way to Alamogordo, New Mexico. After several days,
they finally arrive with the crew hired by Cockburn Inc. to search for the
cartridges. However, their search is being monitored by General Dark Onward
(Stephen Mendel) and is mistaken as a terrorist threat. General Onward goes
with a group of soldiers to investigate and the events that follow end up
uncovering a government conspiracy surrounding the landfill that goes beyond
normal comprehension.

AVGN has a regular job at GameCops, where he can't stop people from
buying bad games no matter how hard he tries.

Keeping in with the original idea for the
script, AVGN: The Movie is a bit like Wayne’s World in that it explores the
life of the AVGN outside of the regular review show. The story isn’t the best
in the world of course, and I’m not really going to spoil anything, but the
excitement and fun of watching is fueled by the unique premise and how the bar
of ridiculousness is continually raised. Fortunately, this is pretty
controlled, as the film knows when to throw the next big thing at you to answer
the many questions brought up throughout the narrative, though to say how would
involve spoilers. Each of the main characters is fairly interesting, since we
are given enough information to establish who they are and their personalities
get fleshed out more as the plot unfolds. However, the pacing is generally a
little uneven. There are spots where the movie drags a little and some scenes
could have been trimmed a little to streamline the narrative. Despite this, the
film is still very entertaining and has a large B-movie feel to it, which is
appropriate due to the very small budget they had to work with. Also, the wait
for the credits is more than worth it, since he fulfills a particular wish that
fans have had for years.

Cooper (left), AVGN (center) and Mandy (right) on their way to Alamogordo, New Mexico.

Fitting in with the style of a regular
AVGN episode, the movie has plenty of vulgar humor. I normally don’t like it
when a movie goes for fecal jokes, but since I knew this to be inherent to the
series, I let it slide, but even then not all of the jokes are funny. With a
good audience though, like the one I had, they can become funny due the
camaraderie, as well as the timing of said jokes. Some AVGN-style rants are
also present, wherein he compares a game to something very gross, which are
given more towards the camera and some of these are actually pretty funny.
However, a lot of the jokes also come about from verbal and visual puns, a
style of humor that I happen to like, but I’m sure for others they may be more
groan-inducing.

Another part of the humor is the
references made both to the main video series and other movies. Long-time fans
will be able to recognize familiar faces such as Kyle Justin, the composer of
the main theme of the show, or Mike Matei, one of James Rolfe’s real-life
friends and co-manager of Cinemassacre (it should be noted that, in-universe,
AVGN has no idea who he is). Other recurring gags return, though for the sake
of surprise I’ll keep those more of a secret. As noted before, references to
other movies can also be spotted, though the one that immediately comes to mind
is one which mimics the opening scene of Raiders of the Lost Ark, at least the
part where Indiana Jones swaps the idol with a bag of sand. Amusingly enough,
there are also plenty of meta-gags which reference both the production budget
and general tropes of filmmaking and marketing. When mixed with the other
elements above, it seems that anyone watching will be able to laugh at
something no matter their tastes in comedy.

The effects are interesting, since
throughout production James Rolfe insisted on using practical effects as
opposed to purely CGI. As a result the effects do seem more real and interact
better with the rest of the sets. However, there are times when the effects are
glaringly low budget, a la John Dies at the End, or deliberately amateurish,
such as vehicles which look exactly like toys or props, which helps add another
dimension to the comedy. Some of this could probably be due to the
post-production work being mostly outsourced to fans willing to aid in the
project, something which needed to be done thanks to having a total of 942 VFX
shots to go through, but it nevertheless fits in well. However, I must say that
at a couple points the film quality seems to get a little grainy. I have no
idea if this was deliberate or not, but it deserves a mention anyway.

James Rolfe insisted on using practical effects throughout the movie.
(Also, I refuse to explain the in-movie context of this image.)

As for the sound, it was done very nicely.
The occasional video game sound effect can be heard, but they never really feel
out of place and sort of reinforce the atmosphere. I
would also give props to the music by Bear McCreary and Kyle Justin, which fits in very well
with every scene and enhances the mood perfectly; at one point you can even
hear a sort of orchestral version of the show’s main theme in the background. Similarly
to the video though, there are a couple points where the audio quality, at least
for the dialogue, isn’t as good as the rest of the movie. This only lasts for a
single shot at a time though, so it doesn’t really get in the way, but I would
boil this down to the outsourcing and microscopic budget.

Angry Video Game Nerd: The Movie is a
movie that every AVGN fan should see. The story isn’t perfect, but the style of
humor is very much in line with the older videos and feels like more than just
an extended episode of the show. Though cheap, the effects work naturally for
the B-movie feel and the music is excellent. If fans can’t see it in the
theater, then they should do themselves a favor and pick it up on home video (I
know I really want to). This movie may not be as appealing to non-fans, but if
you know someone who wants to see it or they want to show it to you on home
video, then you should watch one of two AVGN reviews first; if you want
a direct lead-in then you should watch Spielberg Games, but if you want a
thematic lead-in (where he hints that he’s going to do something bigger than he’s
ever done before) you should watch Desert Bus. Either way the movie is great
fun to watch, plus I’d consider it one of the most entertaining independent
films I’ve seen in a while. Here’s hoping that James Rolfe continues to pursue
his dreams of filmmaking.